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On Wednesday in Belize, the weather was a warm 28C, although the skies were expected to be cloudy.
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Outside my office in Hamilton, the clouds are also slate gray. It is a let’s-sit-in-a-cozy bar 3C, with rain in the forecast.
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For the above reasons, this is the time of year when Canadians dream of warmth and sunshine. Those with the financial wherewithal head directly south. They do not pass Go.
MURDER
Some go to Florida, others to Palm Springs, and the more adventurous go to places like Mexico, Costa Rica and Belize. What visitors to the latter seldom realize is that these places aren’t Rosedale, North Vancouver or Westmount.
Masseuse Marty Thorne, 65, was a seemingly free-spirited woman from British Columbia who couldn’t wait to return to her beloved Belize, where she had lived for years and owned the Raw Spa Cabanas.
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On Monday morning, a handyman discovered that Thorne was nowhere to be found on her property in Bullet Tree Village, Cayo District, near the border with Guatemala. He called the cops around 7:30 a.m.
‘VISIBLE INJURIES’
“He made further checks on the property, and that is when she was located in the yard with visible injuries to the body,” ASP Stacy Smith said.
Thorne had reportedly been stabbed to death. Local law enforcement has been slow to confirm — or deny — details of the investigation. This is not an unfamiliar scenario when horrors happen in the developing world.
According to local reports, Thorne — a mother of two grown sons — had lived in Belize “for decades” and was a beloved local figure. Although being beloved counts for little these days, whether it’s Toronto or Timbuktu.
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“I knew Ms Thorne. We are like family… I never believed what’s happened to her. I was really sad,” neighbour Michael Waight told News Five. “As I see the blood, I was already thinking that this is something not good… I never has seen something like this. My first time. Very scary.”
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DANGEROUS COUNTRY
This should be no big shock. Belize is one of the most violent and dangerous countries in the world, according to Global Affairs Canada. Border areas like Bullet Tree Village (Pop. 2,124) are particularly prone to violence, the feds say.
None of the bloodshed, drug-cartel driven or otherwise, seems to deter Canadian snowbirds, rich with real estate, pensions, investments and time.
These factors did not deter Francesca Matus, 52, a semi-retired Keswick realtor and mom of two. She, too, was smitten with Belize and her corner of the country, Corozol, on the Caribbean, near the Mexican border. Matus made a mint in Toronto’s booming real estate market and enjoyed the cash.
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Each November, she headed south to Belize and then headed home in the spring. In 2017, Matus did not make the return trip home.
Instead, Matus was found dead with her American boyfriend, Drew DeVoursney, 36, on May 1, 2017. They had been strangled to death, and their killers expected them to burn in a sugar cane field being cleared.
Their murders remain unsolved and are likely to stay that way.
Odds are less than 50/50 that the murder of Marty Thorne (motive unknown) will be solved.
RICH MAN’S WEATHER
“Ms. Thorne was a good people. It’s a nice people,” neighbour Michael Waight said. “She never have no kind of enemy. I never saw her with enemies. She was a very friendly person, a very good person, like a family.”
For Thursday, the forecast is calling for a day of heavy rain. For the friends and family of Marty Thorne, this will be the way it is for some time.
As for everyone else, the forecast for Sunday is sunny and 29C. Rich man’s weather.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun
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